CHICAGO—The top US office markets posted generally solid performances in 2017, with average lease rates going up, and vacancy rates trending down, according to a new report from Colliers International. The company attributes much of the vibrancy to the need among tech-oriented tenants to expand. But the prognosis for 2018 is not uniformly rosy.
“There is a clear bifurcation in demand,” Stephen Newbold, national director of office research, tells GlobeSt.com. Tenants occupying high-end, class A spaces in the most prestigious submarkets have agreed to pay record-setting rents, but many older spaces are being left behind.
Tech-oriented markets such as Seattle and San Francisco have benefited the most. Seattle's vacancy rate dropped from 7.6% to just 5.4% in the last quarter, Colliers finds, and is now the lowest in the nation. Amazon, of course, had much to do with that drop. It moved into 528,000 square feet across two properties in the Lake Union submarket, which now has a 3.1% vacancy rate.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
